Israeli economy minister threatened to pull his party out of the coalition government if ‘Israel’ agreed to release Palestinian prisoners. "If the deal includes murderers with Israeli citizenship, it would violate Israeli sovereignty," Naftali Bennett, the leader of Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party, was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post.

"Bayit Yehudi would oppose such a deal in the cabinet, and if it passes, the party would leave the government," he warned.

Palestinian-Israeli peace talks faltered last month after Israel reneged on its pledge to release a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responded by applying for Palestinian membership in several United Nations institutions and treaties.

The Israeli government, for its part, ordered punitive measures against the Palestinians, including suspending the transfer of tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians, as agreed in the 1994 Oslo Accords.

Jewish Home party is one of the far-right Zionist parties in the Hebrew state.

Bennett, who is also the head of the right-wing Jewish Home Party as well as the extra-parliamentary movement My Israel, told Israeli TV that “President Mahmoud Abbas does not want peace”, and alleged that “the Palestinians always try to kill the Israelis.”.

Israeli negotiators suggested to deport to the Gaza Strip 10 of the veteran prisoners expected to be freed by Israel this month, but the Palestinian side refused to discuss that proposal, a senior official said Thursday.

Acting on instructions from the president, the Palestinian negotiators refused to discuss the proposal of deporting any prisoner to avoid repetition of previous experiences when prisoners were deported to Gaza or to foreign countries, according to the high-level Palestinian source.

At the end of March, Israel refused to release a final batch of Palestinian prisoners the PLO had been expecting to be freed in a gesture to restart peace talks last year.

In response, the PLO applied last week to adhere to 15 international treaties, leading Israel to threaten sanctions against the Palestinian government in the occupied West Bank.

On Thursday, a new meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators attended by US special envoy Martin Indyk took place, the same source told Ma'an.

The parties, added the source, are to discuss the possibility that Israel releases the fourth group of prisoners to reduce tensions between the two sides in the hope of resuming talks.

According to the source, the Palestinian negotiators will continue to separate the release of prisoners and the extension of peace talks beyond the agreed deadline of April 29.

Abbas, meanwhile, says he is ready to extend peace talks based on principles and terms of reference that lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas told the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper that his move to join 15 international conventions and treaties embodied “one of the Palestinian people’s rights and Israel has nothing to do with that.”

During a meeting with foreign ministers of the Arab League in Cairo on Wednesday, Abbas reviewed a report in detail about peace talks and the impasse they reached. He also updated the participants on the results of the last tripartite meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators and US mediators.

Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians were relaunched in July under the auspices of the US after nearly three years of impasse.

Israel's government has announced the construction of thousands of settler housing units and its army has killed 60 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since the negotiations began.

A committee organized on Monday a stand in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners and in opposition of trading their issue for extending the negotiations with 'Israel'. Dozens of activists and ex-prisoners participated in the event staged by the ‘High Committee for Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs’ in Nablus, Safa news agency reported.

They demanded the Palestinian Authority not to link freeing the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners with extending the negotiations based on ‘political blackmail’.

Khalid Al-Khandakji, the spokesman for commitee in a press conference urged Abbas to suspend the negotiations until all political prisoners are released.

“Abbas should head to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its practices against the prisoners such as solitary confinement and medical negligence ,” He added.

'Israel' refused to release The fourth batch of the pre-Oslo prisoners which were to have been on March 29, 2014 as a goodwill gesture to the Palestinian negotiators.

Some 5000 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jail. Over 150 of them are put under administrative detention, and 1,500 sick prisoners, including 27 with cancer.

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails decided to begin actions, this week, in protest of Israel's failure to release a fourth group of veteran prisoners.

13 Palestinians were injured during one protest in solidarity with the prisoners.

According to Ziad Abu Ein, an undersecretary at the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, the protests would culminate in an open hunger strike if the prisoners' demands were not met, the Alternative Information (AIC) reports.

From July 2013, Israel agreed to release in four batches 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners who were held in custody prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords. The releases were part of a plan to resume peace negotiations, after talks were halted for more than two years.

According to the agreement, Israel was supposed to release the fourth batch of prisoners on March 29.

On Friday, Palestinian activists demonstrated in front of Ofer detention center in Ramallah to protest Israel’s decision to violate the agreement over the prisoners' release.

13 demonstrators were injured in clashes with Israeli forces which erupted during the demonstration. Seven people were injured with live ammunition.

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will commence protests beginning next week against Israel's failure to release a fourth group of veteran prisoners, a Palestinian Authority official said Friday.

Ziad Abu Ein, undersecretary to the minister of prisoners' affairs, said the coordinated protests would culminate in an open hunger strike if the prisoners' demands were not met, Abu Ein added.

"The Israeli government is sick and needs to be quarantined because it poses a threat to the peace process in the region," he added.

A source close to the ongoing peace negotiations said on Thursday that Israel had cancelled the release of the fourth group of veteran Palestinian prisoners in response to the recent decision by Palestinian officials to seek recognition at a number of major international multilateral treaties and conventions.

Palestinian officials said the bids for recognition were in response to Israel's failure to release the final group of prisoners on March 29 as scheduled.

Israel agreed to release 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners who have been in custody since before the 1993 Oslo Accords as part of a plan to resume peace negotiations after talks were halted for more than two years.

Direct negotiations began in July between Israel and the Palestinians in a US-led attempt to restart the deadlocked peace process. Israel has announced plans to build thousands of homes in illegal settlements across the West Bank over the course of the talks, inhibiting US efforts.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

Israel has called off the planned release of 26 Palestinian prisoners, placing already embattled peace talks in further jeopardy after both sides took steps Washington called "unhelpful".

Israel's chief negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, told her Palestinian counterparts on Thursday the planned releases cannot go ahead because the Palestinians had formally requested accession to several international treaties, a source close to the talks told AFP.

The Israelis saw this as a breach of conditions agreed for a resumption of US-brokered peace talks last July, the source said.

A frustrated US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday demanded that recalcitrant Israeli and Palestinian politicians demonstrate leadership in the peace process.

The talks hit a new impasse when Israel failed to free the prisoners as expected at the weekend.

In response, the Palestinians formally requested accession to several international treaties, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides the legal basis for Palestinian opposition to Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

The source said Livni had told the Palestinian negotiators that her government had been seeking to expedite the releases at the moment the Palestinians submitted their accession request to UN bodies.

Livni urged them to cancel the applications and return to talks, the source said.

The Palestinians, however, insisted that the basis for future talks must change.

"Israel has a habit of evading agreements and conventions it has signed," Yasser Abed Rabbo, general secretary of the PLO executive committee, told AFP.

"That is why conditions for future negotiations must change radically," he added, without elaborating.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Israel's decision had put further strains on peace efforts.

"The decision by the Israelis to delay the release of the fourth tranche of prisoners creates challenges," he said in Washington.

Carney said, however, that Kerry and the US negotiating team would not be deterred in trying to keep the peace effort alive despite recent setbacks.

Late Thursday, four rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel, a military spokesman told AFP.

He said there were no casualties and army radio said all the rockets fell in open countryside.

Palestinian security officials and witnesses early Friday reported Israeli air strikes on six facilities of the Hamas military wing around Gaza city.

No casualties were reported.

The Israeli military confirmed four air strikes and linked them to cross-border small arms fire from Gaza the day before, as well as the latest rocket fire.

Kerry phones Netanyahu, Abbas

US officials said that Kerry, who has pursued more than a year of intensive shuttle diplomacy, spoke by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday afternoon, and to President Mahmoud Abbas later, but they gave no details.

His efforts appeared to be on the brink of collapse this week after Israel announced a fresh wave of settlement tenders and the PLO resumed international recognition moves.

Kerry threw down the gauntlet, telling both sides it was time for compromise at what he called a "critical moment" in the peace process.

"You can facilitate, you can push, you can nudge, but "The leaders have to lead, and they have to be able to see a moment when it's there."

Israel's government has announced the construction of thousands of settler housing units and its army has killed over 60 Palestinians and injured hundreds in the West Bank and Gaza since the negotiations began.

The Israeli government has also insisted that it maintain a military and civilian presence in the occupied Jordan Valley, which forms around a third of the West Bank, and has insisted that the PLO recognize it as a "Jewish state," despite having already officially recognized Israel decades earlier.

While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presses Israel to release the final batch of long-term Palestinian prisoners, thousands others are languishing in Israeli jails, and their plight unheard by the main Palestinian factions.

Nahed al-Aqra, 42, is a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli occupation jail who lost both legs. Every Tuesday, his mother, Umm Mazen, participates in a weekly sit-in in front of the Red Cross headquarters in the city of al-Bireh in the center of the West Bank. A handful of officials and parents of detainees also take part in these sit-ins.

Despite the public, factional and organizational absence from the events in support of the detainees, Umm Mazen does not tire of holding a picture of her son sitting in a wheelchair at the weekly sit-in.

According to an unpublished report prepared by the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a copy of which was obtained by Al-Monitor, the number of detainees in Israeli prisons reached over 5,000 in early 2014. Three detainees have been on an open hunger strike for about two months now, while four others are in solitary confinement. Despite this, public support events remain mostly “weak and inefficient.”

Al-Monitor spoke by phone to former detainee Khodr Adnan, who is considered the instigator of hunger strikes in Israeli prisons after having gone without food for 66 days at the end of 2011. “The weakness of the public support movement is due to factional, partisan and political disputes and conflicts, in addition to the Palestinian Authority’s bureaucratic approach,” Adnan said.

Adnan, who has led several public events in support of the detainees, added: “The scenario involving detainees going on hunger strike in the occupation’s prisons, which always ends with success, has weakened the interaction and motivation of some people. They were not aware that a detainee could die any moment.”

“Any Palestinian organization can excite the public, but the [hunger] strikers do not fall in the same category. We no longer see some of them as Palestinians, while they achieve things without public support and in the absence of official media coverage,” he added.

Palestinian factions are completely absent when it comes to organizing events in support of the detainees. Their participation is usually restricted to important occasions such as Palestinian Prisoners Day, which takes place yearly on April 17.

Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Legislative Council and the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), told Al-Monitor that political parties do not play a significant role in supporting the detainees.

“The political distress in the Palestinian street affects the popularity of events in support of the detainees. The status quo has created a feeling that the events are just a routine measure and have not resulted in the release of detainees,” she added.

“However, the issue of detainees unites the Palestinian people, despite their different political affiliations. The political divisions have not affected this issue because the detainees are united inside the prisons,” she noted.

Holmi al-Araj, head of the Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights, told Al-Monitor that popular unity with regard to the actions supporting the detainees “has ups and downs depending on the situation inside the prisons.”

According to Araj, the weak public support for issues concerning detainees stems from “national concern, the multitude of issues preoccupying Palestinian citizens as well as the economic conditions, political division and the bad internal situation, which all resulted in a feeling of distrust among Palestinians with regard to the daily performance [of the government].”

Araj added that the division gave rise to discord and a lack of national unity in the efforts to support the detainees, despite the latter’s presence in the mind and soul of the Palestinian people.

The lack of popular support of the activities concerning the detainees is added to the staggering or limited coverage of the Palestinian media.

The spokeswoman of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Amani Sarahne — who's considered by the Palestinian media to be a main source of information on detainees — explained to Al-Monitor the lackluster coverage of detainees by the Palestinian media. “While all Palestinian media outlets provide an acceptable level of coverage of the detainees' cause, this is only because of pleas by human rights institutions that follow this national cause closely,” she said.

“Usually, [these outlets] merely report the news. Comments on the information are immediate but fade away soon, and disappear as if no harm was done [to the prisoners], even though it is a cause that concerns each Palestinian. The whole of Palestinian society is held in prison,” she added.

Sarahne called for a serious strategic media plan that would strive to carry the detainees’ voice to international ears. Coverage should not be limited to the local media and more light must be shed on the violations of prisoners’ rights, since they are the source of many humanitarian stories that have so far been transmitted without much professionalism.

About 1,000 detainees suffer from various illnesses, including 160 who suffer from chronic diseases caused by delays in diagnosis and failure to provide appropriate treatment, according to the report prepared by the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an organization that closely follows the health conditions of detainees inside Israeli prisons, told Al-Monitor that it received about 300 to 400 medical records of detainees. ِAccording to these records, detainees suffer from various illnesses, from simple malaise to chronic diseases that require complex treatments.

Mahmoud Mahamid, a PHR board member, told Al-Monitor that “many factors affect the health conditions of the detainees, both on physical and psychological levels.” These factors include assaults at the moment of arrest or inside the detention center, torture policies adopted by soldiers and wardens, in addition to solitary confinement policies and harsh conditions related to hygiene, heating and ventilation, according to Mahamid.

Mahamid said that the detainees also suffer from poor treatment and incompetence of the medical staff, who adopt security and political standards rather than professional and international ones. In addition, they suffer from systematic delays in providing the appropriate treatment and neglect periodic medical examinations, and the late diagnosis of chronic diseases such as cancer led to the death of a number of detainees, as was proven in the case of martyr Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh.

PHR believes that the proposed law regarding force-feeding prisoners who are on hunger strike and dispensing treatment against the prisoners' will contradicts the patients’ rights. It aims at using force to demoralize the Palestinian detainees who go on hunger strike and to end their protest. Such actions are usually carried out by the state or its delegates without the protester’s permission and despite his objection, to undermine his independence, in a blatant violation of the principles of the United Nations' Convention against Torture (CAT).

It's worth mentioning that PHR had lodged a protest against the bill last February, by means of a letter addressed to the legal counselor of the Israeli government, according to Mahamid.

Detainees have long complained about the small number of popular solidarity events in support of them, and they have sent messages from within prisons about this weakness and its impact on their struggle.

The lack of popular and institutional support constrains the prisoners’ movement, as there is little pressure exerted on occupation authorities to provide them their rights.

Thirty veteran Palestinian prisoners who were eligible to be freed on March 29 applauded President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to apply for membership in international agencies, a statement said Wednesday.

"President Abu Mazen (Abbas) stood up for our dignity and our freedom," the statement said. "We support his efforts and his decision -- we refuse to be used as a bargaining chip."

"Our fate and destiny are not separate from that of our people. Israel must pay a toll for the crimes committed against Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people."

As a stipulation for relaunching peace negotiations in July, Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinian veteran prisoners -- jailed before the 1993 Oslo accords -- in exchange for the PLO's pledge not to apply to international bodies.

Seventy-eight prisoners have been freed so far in three separate tranches.

Israel was scheduled to release the final group of prisoners on Saturday, but did not.

In response, Abbas said on Tuesday that he had begun steps to join several UN agencies.

Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians were relaunched in July under the auspices of the US after nearly three years of impasse.

Israel's government has announced the construction of thousands of settler housing units and its army has killed 60 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since the negotiations began.

President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday said the Palestinians would seek membership in international organizations after Israel failed to release a batch of Palestinian prisoners on schedule.

In a televised speech, Abbas said he had started the process to sign agreements with 15 United Nations agencies and organizations and would pursue joining more.

"The Palestinian leadership has unanimously approved a decision to seek membership of 15 UN agencies and international treaties, beginning with the Fourth Geneva Convention," Abbas said after signing the demand.

The U.S Daily Beast website quoted from the American Administration on Tuesday morning as saying, there are efforts to release the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for the release of the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, including prisoners from the pre-1948 Palestine.

It said, “America refused over the years to release Pollard who is serving a life sentence in American prisons, however, US stance has been changed recently in light of the existing risks threatened the Israeli Palestinian settlement process.”

The website quoted a senior official in the U.S Administration as saying, “ U.S Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu are looking in the possibility of releasing Pollard in an attempt to develop an agreement to maintain the negotiations process after the peace talks' deadline specified on April 29.”

Releasing Pollard will give Netanyahu the Israeli society's support to release the fourth batch of prisoners, according to Daily Beast.

The US official added that his administration refused previously this option but the Israeli occupation took a tougher stance, linking Pollard release to the fate of peace negotiations.

Kerry met Netanyahu yesterday evening and he is expected to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) refused to accept the extension of the faltering peace talks with Israel, which are supposed to end on April 29. A senior PA official said that Israel uses a policy of extortion through making the release of the fourth batch of prisoners dependent on the extension of the negotiations.

The official added that Israel offered to release 420 prisoners specified by its side if the PA accepted the extension, but the PA refused that.

The Israeli overture also included a partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank only, apart from Jerusalem, while construction plans that already started would not stop.

Israel had agreed when the US-sponsored negotiation kicked off in July 2013 to release 104 Palestinian prisoners, who were taken prisoners before the 1993 Oslo accords, in four batches; however, it has released 78 detainees in three batches.

US secretary of state John Kerry met last week in Jordan with de facto president Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to save the peace talks that reached a dead end after Israel refused to release the fourth batch of prisoners.

A senior Palestinian Authority official said that the US administration asked the Palestinian side to give it some time to determine the fate of the fourth and final batch of the Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel. Quds Net quoted a senior PA official as saying on Sunday that the US administration asked for two days to declare Israel's approval or refusal to release the fourth group of prisoners. According to this official, the PA was also demanded not to make any move at the UN level that could undermine the American efforts to save the peace talks. The Israeli news website Walla said the Americans and Israelis asked PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to accept the extension of the peace talks for another six months in exchange for the release of 400 Palestinian prisoners other than the fourth batch which Israel had pledged earlier to free. Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat, for his part, welcomed the US-Israeli overture and said the fourth batch of prisoners would be released next Tuesday.